An academy for growth and guidance

Month: Nov 2015

When one talks of equality, it is always the “safe” topics that get highlighted, things like equal rights at the workplace for men and women, etc. Funny thing is that not everyone talks about equality in getting medical treatment.

The truth is that though we would all like to believe that we are very aware of what equality means, most of us have never thought of applying it to male sexual assault victims. In truth, most of us never even thought that grown or adult men can be victims of any kind of sexual assault.

Traditionally, it has always been women that are synonymous with the “victims of sexual assault” tag when it comes to talking about adult victims. What most people do not realize is that men can be sexually assaulted too and they go through the same trauma, both mental and emotional not to mention physical, that a woman goes through.

Though Sweden was voted the most gender-equal country in the world about five years ago by the World Economic Forum, it was only last month that Stockholm opened up its first clinic for male sexual assault survivors. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

Rasmus Jolund, a spokesperson for the Liberal Party who masterminded the program, talked about how most men were scared to come forward and open up about it because of the stigma attached to being a sexual assault victim. Counseling and legal services are also part of the medical treatment which is entirely paid for by the taxpayers.

The hope is that with dedicated medical help available on every level, the victims will no longer be content to stay “hidden” anymore. That they will come forward to take advantage of the clinic and that their attackers will be brought to justice with a better chance of convictions.

Anybody who has a Facebook account knows how dangerously addictive it can become. The games and the live newsfeed which tells you what all your friends are up to instantly are the two main points of this website.

A study, led by Samantha Stronge, a doctoral student from Auckland University in New Zealand, shows that introverts do not mix well with Facebook as they feel more excluded from the social activities of friends who are much more extroverted than themselves. An extrovert is someone who is a socially outgoing, confident person while an introvert is the opposite. The study showed that most extroverts use Facebook as an extension of social lives which are already quite busy. They post more status updates, share more posts and send more messages to people.

Introverts, on the other hand, do not have a social life that can compare. They do not tend to use Facebook as actively for the same reasons. They do, however, get to watch. They see the news feed which tells them what their more extroverted friends are doing. This active, up to date reminder is so blatantly “in their face” that there is little they can do to avoid it. The only way to get away from it is to get off of Facebook.The “poor get poorer” effect has been blamed for this.

This effect happens when people who have already felt excluded from society feel even more so after joining a social media site such as Facebook. The only problem with getting off of Facebook is having to deal with reality which would mean getting out and being actively involved. Most introverts are not so good with this aspect of life which is why they are introverts in the first place.There are some who learn to benefit from Facebook and turn themselves into extroverts.